Mr. Speaker, the government House leader seems to have awakened to some new reality, a fiction in his own mind. Coming from the government that has broken the 140-year record of all governments in all situations in Canadian history of invoking closure and shutting down debate in Parliament, the suggestion that it is somehow open to negotiations now and that there is a consensus-building kind of culture over on that side is a revelation for me.
I deal with the current government often. I deal often with ministers on various things. It is remarkable to me how many times backbenchers from the Conservative side approach me and some of my colleagues here in the official opposition to ask, “Is there any chance that you can move the Conservative side along here?” or “Can we see some progress on issue X for my constituents?”
If the government House leader is suggesting that he is into consensus-building and is into incorporating the ideas of the opposition--of which we tried two today, and he said no, by the way--if he is now into that sort of procedure in this place, then we in the official opposition absolutely welcome the idea so that we can turn his words of productivity and orderliness into a lot more than what they have meant in the past, which was shutting down debate and consistently using bully tactics in Canada's Parliament.